Posted March 20, 2003Napolitano Encourages Balance
of Private, Public Practice

Napolitano said being a governor
is "probably the most challenging job in government now."

After graduating from the Law School in 1983,
Janet Napolitano packed everything she owned into her two-door
Honda and puttered out to Arizona in the August heat. She may
not have known it then, but she was heading for her future as
well. Now governor of Arizona, the first woman to succeed another
woman as governor in the country, Napolitano looked back on her
wending path through private and public law during the Conference
on Public Service and the Law's keynote address March 15.

Working as a judge's clerk, in private practice,
as a U.S. Attorney and as Arizona's attorney general, Napolitano
said, "has prepared me to take on what is probably the most
challenging job in government now."

Her grounding began in law school, she said,
noting that she and her law school housemate were later both U.S.
Attorneys at the same time, and former Gov. Evan Bayh, now a U.S.
senator, was a student in the class two years ahead of hers. "There's
a rich tradition here of public service."

"We would like to say we made Janet Napolitano,
but the truth is she made herself," former dean and law professor
Richard Merrill said in his introduction. "She is the epitome
of what it means to be a public servant as a lawyer."

A New Mexico native, Napolitano chose to clerk
for a U.S. Appeals Court judge in Arizona after law school. Being
a clerk "is a wonderful way to bridge from the law school
to practice," she said, and Arizona was a place where "opportunities
would abound." After her clerkship she joined the Phoenix
firm Lewis and Roca, where she began to understand how to combine
private practice with public service.

Senior firm partner John P. Frank of Miranda
fame offered her a model; throughout his career he took pro bono
cases. "He would go once a month and spend a night at the
legal aid office in Phoenix," she said, and he worked into
his 80s.

"That taught me something about how you
could combine public service with private practice," she
said.

While working at the firm Napolitano also got
involved in politics. She volunteered to be the lawyer for the
Democratic Party"Don't do that," she jokedand
cast the Arizona votes for the Democratic presidential nominee
in 1992 in English, Spanish and Navajo, reflecting the state's
three prominent languages.

Soon after, President Clinton appointed her
U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. She had no criminal
law experience, and had to catch up quickly.

"It was no doubt a transition, but it was
not as hard as I thought it was going to be."

She said the experience made her appreciate
public sector lawyers who work full-time. Much of the work involved
drug trafficking and immigration violations, but also the savings
and loan scandals and corruption cases. During her watch she oversaw
the investigation into Timothy McVeigh's activities in Arizona
prior to the Oklahoma bombing. She noted that Kingman, AZ was
the site of the tenth-largest FBI office in the world for six
weeks during that time.

When Arizona's attorney general seat opened
up, Napolitano said to herself, "If I don't run now I'll
probably never run." She called her dad to tell him she would
be campaigning without a salary for a year. "Let me get this
straight," he began, before listing her dwindling salaries
since her top salary at Lewis and Roca. She fired back that she
knew he's got that trust fund money waiting for her. A few days
later she received a check made out to her campaign for $5 from
the "Napolitano Trust Fund," with the note, "exhaustion
of principle and interest."

In 1998 Napolitano was the only democrat elected
in Arizona, a predominantly Republican state that nonetheless
was and is undergoing rapid demographic and population changes
partly due to increasing numbers of Hispanics. As attorney general
she was also part of the "Fab Five"-five women who held
the five highest elected offices in Arizona in what was a first
for the country. While the U.S. Attorney's office was 95 percent
criminal law work, the attorney general worked within a more broadly
based political context.

"It enables you to do good things as you
litigate," she said. For example, Napolitano sued shoe manufacturers
for price fixing, and the awarded damages went to programs affecting
women. "With that settlement we were able to keep women's
shelters open and add beds," she said.

Arizona also joined other states in an antitrust
suit against bulk vitamins producers, garnering millions used
for nutrition-related programs, including buying dentures for
senior citizens on Medicare, which doesn't cover the expense.
By the time she finished her term, Napolitano said, she had argued
cases in virtually every federal circuit court in the country,
the Supreme Court, and The Hague.

"That's something that in public service
you have the opportunity to do," she said. "Always go
for an open seat."

Although voters were used to thinking of Napolitano
in leadership positions, she also had to work hard to raise funds
in her campaign for governor. She ran under Arizona's "Clean
Elections" regulations, which helped provide her with some
matching funds, and thanks to a campaign fundraiser attended by
President Bush for her opponent (she joked she volunteered to
sell tickets), she received hundreds of thousands more in matching
funds. She noted that even with Arizona's regulations, political
parties can outspend opposing candidates' campaigns.

"I don't think we're ever going to get
money out of politics," she said, advocating that the involvement
of money be more transparent.

Having traversed what many view as the nastiest
campaign in Arizona history (her opponent did not concede until
four days after the vote), and like many governors, facing a tough
budgetary situation, Napolitano remained optimistic about the
opportunities to make a difference.

"The opportunity to govern in challenging
times is really an opportunity," she said. "Just keep
thinking outside the box."

Arizona has a heavily Republican legislature,
but Napolitano vowed to work through differences to craft budgetary
policies.

"We have to learn to work together or the
voters are going to throw us all out on our ears," she said.

Homeland security has also become a tough issue
for the states, as they struggle to fund increased federal security
requirements, Napolitano said, adding, "if you really do
homeland security right you're increasing your overall public
safety and public health."

She directed students in the audience to study
models of public service throughout history, such as Justice Louis
Brandeis.

"I think by voting with your feet
[and coming to the conference] you've made a great start to whatever
the future holds for you."  Reported by
M. Wood